57 Tiger Cub Motorcycle

FRS 106, Michael Littman – Spring 2015

Thursday, 9 April

In Last Week’s Lab

Samone: Fixed the main shaft; worked on the clutch and transmission.
Devon: found the missing nut for the clutch assembly (connects to the transmission assembly); put together the transmission
Phil: put the front forks back together and is putting the sleeves back in. Just need a spanner wrench to tighten everything next time.
Mark: encountered computer problems with the CREO software to make the gaskets
Mikhail: worked on the transmission and clutch, finally found the missing nut and helped put it together.
Jaime: sandblasted, primed, and used Bando on the oil tank; had to get some of the dents out. Next time: use glazing putty to get some of the small depressions out.
Mary Kate: Finished constructing the bottom end, started on our presentation.
Colby: (sick last time)
Max S: worked with Bill Becker on the wheels; put bearings on the front wheel and put the caps on; currently testing/spinning the wheel on its axel and fine tuning it so that it doesn’t wobble any way as it rotates.
Max B: tried to put the carburetor that they made onto the Blue Motorcycle (from a previous year), but it wouldn’t start because the Points weren’t functional (this is an easy fix). Then tested the Orange motorcycle: tested the bike to see if it would start (it did), then replaced the carburetor, but the springs weren’t the right tightness.
Francesco: worked on truing the tires with Bill Becker; worked with Phil to put back the fork assembly; took pictures (he’s the photographer)
Leslie:  Finished the bottom end, started working on bottom-end project.
Mun: worked with Max B replacing the carburetors on the previous bikes. Will have to work on the springs, and then continue to work on the electrical system.
Kate: Worked with Mun and Max B on the previous bikes, will continue to work on the electrical system.
Caitlin: put the brake shoes into the drums, and worked more on the wheels.
Sydney: Finished the bottom end; had to test previous engines of same model in order to properly line up the timing pinion with the cam, since the timing marker had been rubbed off of our pinion. Then started working on the bottom end project.

ZEN Discussion: Chs 16-18

-Chapter 16:
·          How would a grade-less school system affect students’ effort and learning?
o    Phaedrus confirmed what he believed: that the same students would do well in both systems, because the best students are often the most self-motivated, and want to learn for knowledge’s sake, not for the sake of grades.
o    A system without grades can be good for people who learn at different rates. Some people just take a little longer to understand things; a grade-less system wouldn’t put them under pressure to perform in a way that is not natural to them.
o    It would allow people to intellectually explore other subjects (that are not their focus) without consequence.
o    This is consistent with how many people come back to school after working for a little while and really developing their own interests; this way, they know what they want to learn and really take advantage of school.
o    Going to school for grades is very different from going to school to learn.
·          On writer’s Block: Phaedrus believes that what most people try to do, when writing, is just imitate
o    His exercise for solving his student’s writer’s block: make her write an entire essay on just the front of one store on the mainstreet of Bozeman. This forced her to be creative, and write entirely her own thoughts (because there was nobody’s work she could imitate on the front of this one building).
o    Also said: “the more you look, the more you see.”
-Chapter 17:
·          Do you have a good definition of Quality? What is Quality?
o    By nature, Quality is not something that can or should be defined.
o    What Quality specifically is changes depending on what you’re measuring (two sports teams, two essays, etc..) Is it really necessary to define something that changes so much depending on how it’s applied?
o    The thing that Phaedrus’s students struggled with was not what is quality, but rather, how do you get quality?  (as in, writing their own essays)
o    Always be careful when defining terms, because somebody will always try to find counter examples.
·          Phaedrus on Teaching Writing.
o    He dislikes teaching writing structures/traditional writing tools as methods for quality writing. Rather, he thinks it’s important to realize what it is you’re trying to accomplish.
§  For example: if you want to accomplish unity in your piece of writing, an outline is a useful tool to reach this unity.
§  It’s important to realize your purpose, then use your tools to achieve that purpose, rather than just using the tools because you were told to do so.
-Chapter 18:
·          Some More on Quality
o    Romanticists and classicists approach it different ways
§  Romanticists often admire aesthetic quality, and then never question what exactly it is
§  Whereas classicists often try to define and overanalyze things.
·          “subtraction” method to prove Quality exists
o    Objective: Prove that a world without Quality would be different than the world we live in now.
§  He says: that all of society would be “square,” and look the same, and there would be very little differentiation.
§  Society without Quality would be very different from the world we live in now, so therefore it must exist, even if we cannot define it.
Next week: on Tuesday, material specialist Craig Arnold will be talking to us!
On Thursday, we’ll be all in the Shop, because Professor Littman won’t be here.
No homework/readings! J
–SRC

Discussion of Zen: Chapters 22-24

Quality – a Third horn

Chapter 22:
Poincare – infinite hypotheses bother phaedrus
End of 19th century, difference in logical systems of space
Coming scientific revolution – theory of relativity, space/time no longer absolute
“The soberest and most respected of astronomers would be telling mankind that if it looked long enough through a telescope powerful enough, what it would see was the back of its own head!”
Special relativity – space and time linked
Matter and energy are the same
Absolute magnitude – wave/particle duality; amplitude of wave related to energy packet size, can’t be arbitrarily small

Difference in geometries: Euclidean vs Riemann (based on curvature)
Geometry most useful for describing Earth is non-Euclidean geometry
Eistein Principle of Equivalence: You cannot distinguish between gravity and acceleration (see the “vomit comet”)
Narrator says you can use whichever geometry works best for you at the moment  – Phaedrus didn’t know this

Classic Beauty vs Romantic Beauty: harmony of parts vs “the beauty of appearances which strikes the senses”

Chapter 23:

Glass door is entry to coffin – Difference in personalities forms barrier between him and family. Phaedrus is killed via shock therapy

Chapter 24:

Quality is the fusion of art and science – almost religious definition
“scientific reality” and “the goal of art”
moment of Quality is insular and can’t be thought of in advance
train as a metaphor for knowledge: classical knowledge breaks train into parts, looks at it in the abstract, but romantic knowledge looks at the “leading edge” of the train in its purpose

Can remove a screw by burning it out, using a screw extractor, calling a mechanical friend, or drilling it out

“Stuckness” can be a good thing because you can learn from the failure and learn how to get out of such a situation. This is why mechanics trained in shop can be better than school-trained mechanics